# Narrating disaster: what’s it like to live through a hurricane or volcanic eruption? Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/small-islands-big-picture-6476622/narrating-disaster-what-s-it-like-to-live-through-a-hurricane-or-volcanic-eruption Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/small-islands-big-picture-6476622/narrating-disaster-what-s-it-like-to-live-through-a-hurricane-or-volcanic-eruption.md Podcast: [Small Islands Big Picture](https://stenobird.com/podcast/small-islands-big-picture-6476622) Published: 2025-07-09T10:10:07+00:00 Episode link: https://odi.org/en/insights/small-islands-big-picture-episode-17-narrating-disaster-whats-it-like-to-live-through-a-hurricane-or-volcanic-eruption Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/64a4fd2076d5b800113e6b0d/e/686d22297254eb13355dcc15/media.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/small-islands-big-picture-6476622/episodes/narrating-disaster-what-s-it-like-to-live-through-a-hurricane-or-volcanic-eruption Duration seconds: 3636 ## Resource Disasters are a constant part of life on islands - but outsiders often just see the stats: storm categories, earthquake scales, eruption sizes. Behind those numbers are real people forced to live through harrowing experiences. In this episode, Matt and Emily ask: how do survivors make sense of the shock - and how do their stories help communities rebuild what was lost?  In “Island Voices”, Darenthea Sweeney from Montserrat and Gregory Adams from the British Virgin Islands describe the lasting social effects of disasters. As a disaster management expert, Emily breaks it down for us in the 'Explainer'. Then, three academics – Adom Philogene Heron, Farah Nibbs and Gemma Sou – share how they work with communities affected by disasters to tell their own stories and push back against outside narratives. Finally, in “No Stupid Questions” Matt and Emily discuss whether anyone can ever truly prepare for a disaster on the scale faced by many small islands.      Featuring:   Emily Wilkinson (host) | RESI Director and Principal Research Fellow at ODI  Matthew Bishop (host) | RESI Director and Senior Lecturer at the University of Sheffield  Darenthea Sweeney | Schoolteacher and Climate Justice Leader, Montserrat  Gregory Adams | Chief Planner, Government of the Virgin Islands  Adom Philogene Heron | Lecturer in Visual Anthropology, University of Bristol, UK  Farah Nibbs | Assistant Professor, Emergency and Disaster Health Systems, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, United States  Gemma Sou | Senior Lecturer in Human Geography, Monash University, Australia      Resources:   Programme page | Resilient and Sustainable Islands Initiative (RESI)   Emily’s documentary | Climate Blueprint: Dominica &nbs… ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/small-islands-big-picture-6476622/episodes/narrating-disaster-what-s-it-like-to-live-through-a-hurricane-or-volcanic-eruption/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/small-islands-big-picture-6476622/narrating-disaster-what-s-it-like-to-live-through-a-hurricane-or-volcanic-eruption.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.